thiswayup

27/02/2015

There seems to have
been a definite shift back this series into the more quirky, macabre territory
that Midsomer Murders used to feature
heavily. After a period in which the plots became less unusual and more
serious, the current production team have harked back to the earlier days and
this year has seen some of the most bizarre murders yet none more so than in
the first story The Dagger Club
which mixes literary boastfulness with killer roulette wheels. The latter has
to be seen to be believed kicking off the series with a real spark. Two of
these wheels are delivered anonymously to characters who, upon opening them,
find a message saying `whatever you do don’t spin the wheel`. They do of course
and it sets off an electric charge that kills them! Even more over the top is a
scene in which a character has been squashed by a printing press. When it is
opened he has print stencilled across his body!

25/02/2015

We still
have a landline and every so often the phone rings, you pick it up and there is
nobody there. Nobody that is except for some odd clicks. Or perhaps the sound
of people in the background as if their phone has been left off the hook. This
is the world of cold calling which the government, perhaps mindful of the
impending election, is promising to do something about. Whether they can do
anything is another matter; some people who have gone ex-directory claim they
still receive these calls even though in theory their number is known only to
people they know.
It’s easy to see that some older people or those who live alone might feel they
are being stalked by a mysterious figure intent with some ill - intentioned
motive. In a way they are because at the end of the day many of these
unsolicited calls are to sell you something you probably don’t want. I could
have insulated our loft about ten times over in the past year had I responded
positively to such enquiries. Equally I could have filed dozens of PPI
complaints, insulated the walls, replaced the windows and even switched gas
provider. Which is odd because we don’t have any gas.
Usually these calls have some barely understandable operator clearly phoning
from halfway round the world and thus their voice is feint and crackly. Or else
It’s an automatic message; the one I’m most familiar with lately has a woman
sharply declaring; “HSBS, Barclays, Nat West…” I usually put the receiver down
at that point. Maybe she just likes to list banks. Perhaps next month she’ll
says “Orange juice, lemonade, Coca Cola..” Other cold callers want you to take
a survey because they get in right away and say “I’m not trying to sell you
anything” but then claim “it’ll only take a few minutes”. Don’t ever fall for
that because this is a new definition of “a few” which translates as “about
fifteen minutes.”

People have
tried various methods to get their own back including trying to keep the caller
on the line for as long as possible, pretending to be someone else or even
blowing a loud whistle down the phone. But for some people they are, at best, a
nuisance and at worst a worry.
The prevalence of cold calling suggests there is too much information about
each of us floating about especially as these unwanted calls have found their
way to smartphones as well. Can we do anything about it? Well short of refusing
to sign up to anything which in the online world is difficult, all we can
really do is carry on complaining. You have to feel some sympathy with the
people who have to do these jobs; imagine spending your day phoning people who
don’t want to speak to you and may insult you as well.
If responsible firms and places like banks and even the governmentcan call a halt to the behaviour then it
would certainly be a step forward because then we’ll know that we can swiftly
decline any cold calls we get. There are plenty of other advertising and
promotional avenues around today- more than ever in fact- for cold calling to
be dropped. Being able to see the number of calls, even if it is not given by
the caller, could be a help as well. If all else fails and cold calls continue
to come then you can always resort of playing a recording of a baying moose
down the phone and that would probably ensure you are left alone.

24/02/2015

Nothing
is too over the top or ostentatious for the Wachoswki’s latest crazy space
opera.

In many respects Jupiter Ascending is exactly the sort of film you’d imagine the
Wachowskis might deliver. It is unashamedly over the top, packed with a raft of
exposition and something of an interior designer’s worst nightmare. Chandeliers
on a spaceship? Ostentatious gold statues everywhere? Really? Yet buried
somewhere in the midst of this smorgasbord of film fantasy motifs is a decent
enough idea struggling to make itself heard above the aural and visual din.

23/02/2015

Steve Wright,"Hello I'm Steve Wright and welcome to
another edition of Top of the Pops. And the charts to Jefferson Starship."

It's Steve Wright's first show. He only started as a Radio
One DJ in January 1980 so he's really been rushed on to Top of the Pops. Simon
Bates had to wait ages for his turn. The classic line-up I remember is almost
completely in place. Only Gary "sloppy bit" Davies is missing. So how
does Steve Wright do? Not bad. It's a more polished performance than Simon
Bates gave at the end of 1979 but Steve Wright needs to learn to stop waggling
his head around so much.

22/02/2015

There are moments
during Mathew Vaughn’s latest film when you can only applaud the audacity of
what is on screen. Gleefully playing with spy archetypes, in particular James
Bond, Harry Palmer and also TV’s original Avenger John Steed, is one thing and
would be more than enough. Yet Kingsman
-The Secret Service goes further and does what films nowadays are not
supposed to do by making excessive violence seem fun and rather cool. The
result is something that will certainly not appeal to anyone who is squeamish
or touchy about such matters- though the narrative even ropes them in by having
a dangerous villain who can’t look at violence! For the rest of us this film is
a riot, sometimes literally, from start to finish.

29/01/2015

ITV1 26/01/15 written
by Chris Chibnall, directed by Jessica Hobbs, starring David Tennant, Olivia
Colman, Jodie WhittakerHalf way through the second series it is becoming difficult to escape
the conclusion that Broadchurch is
slowly changing into what we might call as drama-soap. That is to say a series
that would never consider itself a soap but is displaying soapy tendencies.
It’s happened for example to Last tango
in Halifax which started off as a serial about two elderly people falling
for in love but has become an unbelievable series of hysterical events. As far
as Broadchurch is concerned the closest comparison I can think of is Twin Peaks which followed an un-missable
first season with a second that seemed to meander away from the point. Some
shows are better as one offs but in today’s more commercially orientated world
success means follow up. Imagine if they’d made a third or fourth series of Fawlty Towers? Or someone had decided to
pen a sequel to I, Claudius. That
being said I’d say that the jury is still out on the case of Broadchurch. Given that a second series
was going to happen Chris Chibnall has made a decent attempt to expand the
story while keeping true to the stunning first series. What is happening though
as the fabric of the story is stretched is that it is thinning.

23/01/2015

In cinemas now written and directed by Damien
Chazelle, starring J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist
The familiar tale of an inspirational teacher is given a dark spin in Damien
Chazelle’s smart film. Andrew Niemann is a pupil and jazz drummer at the
Shaffer Conservatory one of the foremost music colleges in the States. He is
given the opportunity to join the stage band who enter national competitions
and is run by notorious conductor Terence Fletcher. Here he soon rises from
being alternate to main drummer but Fletcher is a harsh taskmaster who for the
first part of the film appears to be ruthless if not criminal in his treatment
of the musicians.

20/01/2015

ITV1 19/01/15 written
by Chris Chibnall, directed by James Strong, starring David Tennant, Olivia
Colman, Jodie WhittakerCarrying right on
from last week’s panic this episode will probably restore the faith of waverers
unconvinced by the second instalment. Mixing outside events with the tense
formality of the courtroom offers a more varied mood in which several
development occur. The breadth of characters available is yielding intriguing
results now and make Hardy’s attempts to get to the heart of matters seem all
the more desperate.